Unraveling the Nexus of Industrialization, Human Development, Democracy, Trade Openness, and Renewable Energy in EU Environmental Degradation

This study aims to unveil the effects of industrialization, human development, compliance with the rule of law, and renewable energy on CO2 emissions and the ecological footprint of consumption in EU countries over the 1990-2022 period. The empirical findings, based on the MMQR analysis, reveal that the magnitudes of coefficients between factors affecting CO2 emissions and the ecological footprint vary. Industrialization and human development are the main contributors to environmental degradation, while renewable energy use consistently mitigates environmental degradation across all quantiles. Trade openness also mitigates CO2 emissions in all quantiles with a diminishing trend, but the same correlation is only observed in the lowest quantile for the model with ecological footprint. Compliance with the rule of law has a statistically insignificant effect on the ecological footprint; however, in the lowest quantile of CO2 (0.1), the rule of law exacerbates CO2 emissions, whereas in the highest quantile, it has a mitigating effect. While industrialization and human development contribute to both dimensions of environmental degradation, the different impacts of trade openness and the compliance with the rule of law underscore the need for specific strategies in designing policies to mitigate CO2 and ecological footprints from a policy perspective.